I received an e-mail recently from a parent concerned, or more accurately incensed, about his son being told the night before his first game that he could not play peewee football.

Of course, I understand the parent's concern and felt for him, but the rules are the rules, even if they may seem to single out certain kids. And I don't condone publishing a letter from an extremely angry parent without hearing both sides of the story. So I talked to both the parent and representatives of the league and have come to the conclusion that neither could be faulted for their decisions in the matter.

The rule in question was the age allowed in the league. The rules of the River Valley Big 10 Peewee Football League state that no player can play at any point during the season if they are born before Nov. 15. That may be a little bit backward to some parents with kids in youth league sports, as most have their cut-off dates set before the season starts.

To understand why the rule is how it is, one must understand the creation of the league. It was formed in Atkins and featured several of the tri-county area's smaller schools that were tired of putting teams of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders against teams from Morrilton and Russellville that never had to put anybody below the sixth grade on the field.

Too many kids were getting hurt and, frankly, just playing the game isn't going to attract kids to keep playing if they're getting beat by 30-40 points a game. So a few guys decided to start a league to fit the smaller schools.

They decided they would not allow 13-year-olds to play, as many boys hit their growth spurt about that time of their lives. This was an attempt to protect younger kids from injury. Can you imagine your fourth-grade kid trying to tackle a 5-foot-10, 140-pound running back?

The problem with the aforementioned parent and son's situation was the boy -whose birthday is Nov. 10, just five days before the cutoff date - was allowed to practice during the preseason.

The league hosts a jamboree at the beginning of each season to let players, cheerleaders and others affiliated with the program to gather as friends before the competition begins. The parent received a phone call the night before this season's jamboree in Hector and was told his son was ineligible to play with the team he practiced with for weeks.

As I hope any parent would, he started digging and discovered the league's website did not reflect this rule and tried to contact the league. The father was told, "sorry, these are the rules, and there's nothing we can do about it."

I spoke to the league president and a board member, who told me the website was put up by one of their more Internet-savvy board members who, it turns out, wasn't able to keep it updated during his busy schedule - board members donate their time to the league after they get off work. They indicated a desire to take down the website until a third party could run it.

The rule itself was voted on and approved in by league coaches and the representative. Board members have no vote, just veto power to ensure no rule is enacted that may be detrimental to the league or a player's health. The coach of the youth in question did not vote at the time this rule was enacted, but he was at the meeting.

Given the fact the first-year coach knew the rule stated no child who turns 13 on or before Nov. 15 can play, and the league requires a copy of a legal birth certificate, one is left to wonder how this boy was allowed to practice until the day before the jamboree, where each coach in the 10-team league was required to turn in all their player's birth certificates?

Was the coach trying to slip one through the cracks? Was it an honest mistake?

The league did the right thing in sticking to its rules, even though it may have hurt one family's feelings. Yes, it would have been nice to have given the boy a chance to play football with his friends, but if you open that door, when would it stop? The league said it would be more than happy to return the player's fees. The league president said he would pay it out of his own pocket if he had to, despite the team in question's neglect to do so.

This writer hopes the child's family now understands the peewee football league wasn't responsible for his son being so callously treated and can move past the situation.

Do you know of an Arkansas River Valley player of the week?

We want to know if a high school football player, golfer, cheerleader or cross country runner has done something great on the field, in the classroom or in your community. We've asked our football writers to be on the lookout, and we're asking you to give us some tips. After all, it is your newspaper.

If you know a player of the week, e-mail us at sports@couriernews.com or sportseditor@couriernews.com.